Women Of Yliakum

[Gwinn Ravenn]

Women Of Yliakum

It is unfortunate that many of us must contend with unwanted and insistent negative attention for our male counterparts. I for one have grown weary of it. It seems we can not go about our normal business without a proposition of some sort.

I propose We adopt a call for help system. A loose alliance among the good citizens of Yliakum. I suspect primarlary the women will be the driving force of the alliance. Yet all and any concerned citizens may wish to become involved. This alliance needs to be separate and apart from any political, personal or guild associations; in order to maximize the strength and effectiveness of this alliance.

The idea is simple. To inform all those we meet that all they need do in  situations I have described it to “Shout” where they are and that they need help. Second all those in range of the shout come to the aid of the one being harassed. Help for these unfortunate situations should be given regardless of any other obligations or personal grudges. As cleaning up this problem benefits us all.

I thank everyone for taking the time to read this proposal. I hope that this emergency system or something like it can be implemented in the future as the problem seems to be getting worse.

[LigH]

I know that there are a few players who use a rude or even intrusive language. Even as a male player I have been asked things I don't want to tell in detail.

If you need help, in general you should

- create a petition reporting the character name and the abuse,
- use the command "/report charactername" to record the sentences they say.

Unfortunately,

- there are daytimes where GMs are rare, you might have to call them in IRC channels to log in,
- the "report" function only records 5 minutes after you invoked it, but often these people disappear quickly.
__

Still, everyone may have a different opinion about how much is "too much". Some female players enjoy playing along, and even against. Others seem to be already in a bad mood about being greeted...

[zanzibar]

Women Of Yliakum

It is unfortunate that many of us must contend with unwanted and insistent negative attention for our male counterparts. I for one have grown weary of it. It seems we can not go about our normal business without a proposition of some sort.

I propose We adopt a call for help system. A loose alliance among the good citizens of Yliakum. I suspect primarlary the women will be the driving force of the alliance. Yet all and any concerned citizens may wish to become involved. This alliance needs to be separate and apart from any political, personal or guild associations; in order to maximize the strength and effectiveness of this alliance.

The idea is simple. To inform all those we meet that all they need do in  situations I have described it to “Shout” where they are and that they need help. Second all those in range of the shout come to the aid of the one being harassed. Help for these unfortunate situations should be given regardless of any other obligations or personal grudges. As cleaning up this problem benefits us all.

I thank everyone for taking the time to read this proposal. I hope that this emergency system or something like it can be implemented in the future as the problem seems to be getting worse.

A few problems:

i) Sexual advances are covered under harassment, and therefor it's the duty of Game Masters to intervene and not the duty of other players.
ii)  Would this organization be OOC or IC?  If it's IC, then see (i).  If it's OOC, then it shouldn't be in game and again see (i).
iii)  How will you know who is an who isn't female?  This is a violation of privacy, and further it's dangerous.
iv)  How will you account for false accusations that arise from grudges?  The possibilty for abuse is too great.

[Karyuu]

Your best bet with taking care of OOC harassment: do a /report, and notify a GM. Summer is right around the corner for many people, so that means we'll be able to be around more in-game :}

[zorbels]

I see what you are trying to ask for Gwinn Ravenn but I am confused as to if it is in character or out.....

For OOC karyuu, LigH  and zanzibar have pretty much suggested everything you could possibly do. I have gotten some pretty weird tells myself occ and just choose to ignore them, they normally go away. I haven't had a super huge problem with harassment.

If this is an IC organisation, then I think it could  be an idea that might  possibly work. Most of us belong to a guild and usually have the support of our guild, but what of the ones that don't. In this case to offer a safe haven for those who do not have a large group of friends or a guild to look out for them, they might benifit. Thing is to make it happen ... someone would need to do the work. Is that what you would be willing to do Gwinn?

[zanzibar]

It shouldn't be done IC because unwanted sexual advancements are classified as harassment.

[Karyuu]

But unwanted IC, or OOC? It always depends on the situation. I can imagine many an RP scenario where two people can play characters that conflict, but agreeing to it and having fun with it.

[Peacer]

But unwanted IC, or OOC? It always depends on the situation. I can imagine many an RP scenario where two people can play characters that conflict, but agreeing to it and having fun with it.

I agree, if it's ic and your character seems to want help she should just shout "help help i am being harrased by a male" and i think that at least someone should come to help you

[sardit]

Just what exactely do you mean by proposition? If i meet up with a female in game i look for a chat, and nothing dirty about that chat just as i would with males. Since she is a female i may compliment her on her looks for instance, but in no way harass, However, on occasion if i even start talking to a female they already begin telling me to buzz off. I don't care about that, but if they start using this alliance thing in the same way as they snap off at you then imho it would ruin this game.

[zorbels]

Asumming this system is in character .....

I think you are assuming that they will be abusing the system created (That is, if it is created). If your complimenting on her looks and being kind, there would be no reason for you to worry about this organisation bothering you. This .... I think was suggested so that the "alliance" could be there for females who might have someone saying and doing wrong .... to have her feel there is a support system (Doesn't have to be females either). If played right, I believe that these woman "characters" will come and get the female in distress and remover her from the situation. This system shouldn't be a reason to pick on someone, otherwise they would be just doing what they trying to prevent.

[sardit]

I understand how it works, however, its so easy to abuse in my opinion. A horde of players after you can really ruin your experience, and unfortunately there is no way for either player to offer complete proof, ( unless one of the two did a /report and the "abuse" takes place after that ) But since the goal seems to be to circumvent that options as the players who do this are gone before a report has effect they won't use that. It only really takes one griefer to get your character tainted as an abuser, and there is no system in place to prevent that from happening. Hence i don't think its a good idea. I mean if someone is "in distress" just let them shout out for help ! like Help RAPE !!! I'm ( location ) thats much more realistic and i'm sure that any player running into that will run away for his life. There are plenty of people around willing to come to the aid of someone. Me included. But creating an alliance with rules and all quickly starts to log players and before you know it you are on some sort of blacklist and got to recreate your character. It really only takes a couple of female characters to achieve that, especially if your character is "disliked" by a large portion of the community in the first place.

[zanzibar]

It only really takes one griefer to get your character tainted as an abuser, and there is no system in place to prevent that from happening... creating an alliance with rules and all quickly starts to log players and before you know it you are on some sort of blacklist and got to recreate your character. It really only takes a couple of female characters to achieve that, especially if your character is "disliked" by a large portion of the community in the first place.

Hmm, sounds familiar.


I think another danger is that it might mislead new players into thinking that sexual harassment is ok in-game.

[zorbels]

I understand how it works, however, its so easy to abuse in my opinion.

  I competely agree. It would take a very active person ... one to over see creating such a system and making sure it was running accordingly. Personally, I think this idea sounds like an unoffical guild really. I am not sure what this organisation would have for a foundation and goals in PS (Assuming it was IC), but I don't believe there is enough harassment in game to keep a group for this purpose together for long. You also bring up a good point with ......

I mean if someone is "in distress" just let them shout out for help ! like Help RAPE !!! I'm ( location ) thats much more realistic and i'm sure that any player running into that will run away for his life. There are plenty of people around willing to come to the aid of someone.

Between your suggestion and others in this thread with the adivce to report harassment, there really is no point to this system as there are better measure's to take. A GM would have a much more progress than a horde of players. I agree that players would definitely come to the aid of a woman/man in need of help out of an uncomfortable situation. I find and have seen that if players take it into their hands it just turns into harassing on the harrasser.

It really only takes a couple of female characters to achieve that, especially if your character is "disliked" by a large portion of the community in the first place.

True enough Sardit though I am afraid, it isn't just females that could cause trouble to a male who maybe overly friendly. I think there are times as well when a male in the game has been harrassed on occasion.

I believe this organisation could possibly work, but would take alot of thought, organisation and time. , I am not sure how long it would last or how much interest it would hold if someone were to make it happen. That remains to be seen I suppose.  

[Bebel]

*laughs is ass off*
This is a video game, there is rules, if someone don't respect the play nice policy, just ban him. If someone is playing the macho-man and harrass women ingame in a IC way, I think he got a problem irl.
You already have an ONU organisation (the Scoy), now a Women of Yliakum, and soon greenpeace ? Why not vote for a president also ?

[zanzibar]

*laughs is ass off*
This is a video game, there is rules, if someone don't respect the play nice policy, just ban him. If someone is playing the macho-man and harrass women ingame in a IC way, I think he got a problem irl.
You already have an ONU organisation (the Scoy), now a Women of Yliakum, and soon greenpeace ? Why not vote for a president also ?

I'm not sure what you're adding to the conversation.